Social workers union says state Department of Children and Families' issues ilustrate a 'caseload crisis'

Tuesday

Apr 29, 2014 at 11:53 PMApr 29, 2014 at 11:58 PM

Gerry Tuoti Wicked Local Newsbank Editor

State social workers are calling for additional staff to alleviate what they call a “caseload crisis” in the Department of Children and Families.

“When you look at child protective services, there is no single greater determiner of whether social workers will have success in engaging a family or protecting a child than time,” said Jason Stephany, a spokesman for SEIU 509, the union that represents the social workers. “In the current environment, due to this caseload crisis, frontline social workers and investigators just do not have that time.”

Days after authorities found the body of Jeremiah Oliver, a 5-year-old Fitchburg boy who disappeared while under DCF care, social workers demonstrated at locations across the state, including Lowell and Dorchester, to call attention to caseloads.

From March 2013 to March 2014, the number of open cases at the DCF rose from 30,006 to 35,066, while overall staffing levels remained virtually unchanged, the SEIU said. As of March 1, there were 1,860.8 full-time-equivalent social workers in DCF, the SEIU said.

In Fall River, the number of cases from March 2013 to March 2014 went from 1,135 to 1,428, an increase of 25.7 percent. The number of full-time staff, however, decreased by 6.87 percent.

Last March, there were 193 DCF social workers with 20 or more cases. By March 2014, that number had risen to 732 social workers, Stephany said.

The DCF said that, as of April 20, it has 2,051 social workers statewide.

“We share the goal of helping our social workers gain the resources they need to succeed,” the DCF said in a statement. “For that, reason the administration, in partnership with the Legislature, has secured $2.8 million in supplemental funding for the department and has proposed an additional $9.2 million in Gov. Patrick’s budget. These investments will allow us to hire 175 new social workers and staff and to make technology improvements that give social workers access to real-time data.

“In the last four months, the department has been aggressively recruiting and hiring, and, as a result, has brought on more than 150 new social workers and staff to help ease caseloads and strengthen the department.”

Stephany said that, while he applauds the DCF’s efforts to recruit new workers, the new hires haven’t kept up with the rate of attrition.

He added that new directives the DCF implemented after the Jeremiah Oliver case are well-intentioned but add to dangerous caseloads due to insufficient staffing levels.

“There are a series of directives that may have merit, but with the current caseload crisis at hand and barring additional hires, it has become increasingly clear the directives cannot be safely executed in the current environment,” he said.

The DCF fired three workers for mishandling the Jeremiah Oliver case. The department has maintained that caseloads were not a factor in the incident.